My email diet

I love using Gmail, but until it works with my über IMAP acount, I wouldn't seriously consider switching over.

Still, Gmail's made me see the value of having very few actual folders for storing new and archived mail. It makes it much easier to track and organize your mail on the fly, plus Google's search and labeling tools let you confidently shunt items out of your inbox constantly without fear of having stuff disappear. So I decided to try a little experiment.

I took all the messages I had in almost 50 nested IMAP directories (what can I say: I grew up on Eudora) and threw them into a single new "archive"? folder. So far, it’s working great. Here’s my flow:

Mail arrives in the "Inbox"?

I read each message

If it needs only a fast response, I bang it out

If it doesn’t need a response, I just keep on moving

If it needs a more detailed response or a followup, I flag it (like a star in Gmail), and capture any associated TODOs in my big txt list

I process the inbox

flagged messages go into "@flag"? to be monitored for followup

read but unflagged messages get dragged into "archive"?

I then return to the "@flag"? box throughout the day to complete hot items or unflag and move expired ones to "archive."?

For searching in Outlook I use a great, free tool called Lookout. It does a much better job of searching old mail than Outlook alone and it searches all of Outlook including the Contacts and Calendar. Get it here http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/

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